Is The Band That Bad?

[freespirit63 112]

So my question is head hunger. I have that all the time with a band. Is it really head hunger or bullshit? Do u experience head hunger with vs? I have lost 30 pounds with the band in 3 years. I only have 2 cc because I throw up otherwise. Right now I am 4 days after a fill and cannot physically eat but head hunger is a b***h. I am considering a sleeve.

[Butterthebean 8,146]

You will have head hunger with the sleeve but it goes away when you transition back to solid foods.

[CowgirlJane 14,259]

So, what exactly do you consider head hunger? I am not always sure i know what that means exactly.

I had alot of "drive" to eat with the band. Not the first month or two, but after that. I thought it was mental, but I believe it was physical know - I was hungry as my lower stomach was empty. It was awful - well the whole banded experience was awful.

Post sleeve, I really lost that drive to eat and experienced no hunger for along time. I would say about 7-8 months post op I started to have a return of appetite. NOTHING like I had before, so I don't mean to scare you off, but many people have my same experience - a gradual return of hunger and desire to eat. The key then is to manage it well - small portions, Protein first yadda yadda yadda to keep it from turning into the whole "eat junky carbs->crave even more junky food" cycle.

I am still losing,slower, even with a return of appetite because I eat alot less and I while I don't diet, I do try to mostly follow the guidelines. I am only 9 months out, but so far, the sleeve is about a million times better then the band EVER was.

[Butterthebean 8,146]

To me, head hunger is just food withdrawals. Many addicts feel withdrawal if they try to give up their addiction. It doesn't matter what the addiction is, withdrawal symptoms manifest themselves physically. Anyone who has ever tried to quit another addiction can attest to how strong those urges can be. The thing about food withdrawal is it mimics real hunger.

[sleeveconvert 55]

AND the fact with othEr addictions you can live the rest of your life avoiding and not being tempted ( alcohol, smoking, drugs) survive and be just fine!! NOT the case with food-- you have to eat-- encounter the exposure If you will, to survive--- its a daily Mental screw job!!

[Butterthebean 8,146]

Ain't that the truth.

[Kalimomof3 613]

My clinic does 3 surgeries bypass, sleeve and band. I read somewhere that 40% of all band patients have their bands removed due to one issue or another. I asked at the WLS seminar if this has been the experience at my clinic and the Nurse practitioner who is program manager said it is the case in our Bariatric program. With that being said 60% of our patients are maintaing their bands. For me a 40% revision rate is way too high!

[tessies 224]

I also had the band. I was banded feb 10 2006 I had a slippage June of 2006 I lost 200lbs in 16 months. I followed the diet the doctor gave me to a T. I never wavered and I excercised the first year. I got bored after that. Finally got thin never had my band filled. But always miserable, always having periods of tightness always vomiting always in pain. Finally I moved from Florida to Ohio and the first 6 months I was back in Ohio my heartburn was out of control. Couldn't even take Zantac. Could barely eat was burping up a sewage smell, not to mention the complications from my gallbladder surgery because after losing all that weight that quick I had 48 stones and one was stuck in my bile duct. That surgery caused a dysfunction in my bile duct. Which causes severe pain and elevated liver enzymes yet I can't do anything about it. That's another story. So I finally found a bariatric doctor here in Ohio. They got me in ordered an upper gi just to see that I had slipped, bad! My band had to come out so after 5 yrs and 10 months my band was removed. I wanted a revision but the doctor refused during the process we found out I was 8 wks pregnant and he insisted I was thin and didn't need it. Well guess what after basically starving myself for 6 yrs and after the initial 15 months of my band eating like crap because that's the only way I could eat I packed on the lbs through out my pregnancy and once my band was removed. The band can be a great tool but you have to stay on it and be on the diet the doctor gives you always. To do it any other way will cause great pain and sickness. Plus when the doctor in Ohio went in he said my band was entirely to tight. So the original doc who put it on I guess he put it on to tight. I never had a fill in almost 6 yrs. now I'm trying to find a way to get the sleeve. Also my insurance didn't cover the band so I'm also out 14,000.

[GatorTime 1]

I was banded in 2005. I now weight 20 pounds MORE. I was unfilled totally in 2009 due to ALL of the problems my fellow bandsters here have mentioned.

I drank the koolaid - I believed the band was going to make me feel like I ate Thanksgiving dinner after 1/2 cup of food. LIES all LIES.

The band does NOTHING for hunger!! The amount of Ghrelin that your stomach produces does not change because the full stomach is in tact. I was choking on top and starving on the bottom... it is a nightmare for me. Some folks are ok - but only about 30%.

I am trying to revise now, but BCBS has denied me. My appeal was submitted last week. I am praying for revision!!

The band is my plastic demon and it needs to come out!!!!

[freespirit63 112]

Choking on top and starving on bottom ... I never heard it discribed like that. I like it. Head hunger my ass... Your description is better

[SharonRHughes 7]

I got my band 10 years ago and I hate it. Just as sais...choked on top hungry on the bottom. I am having revision in December. I would never recommend the band to anyone!!

[CowgirlJane 14,259]

That is a very good description of my experience as well.

So, back in the day when I was trying to make the band work, I kept hearing that I wasn't losing well because I wasn't "compliant". Well, I was hungry all the time so I started drifting toward slider foods. That whole "compliance" thing made me terrified of the sleeve because I felt I had failed at that once.

My experience so far with the sleeve is completely completely different. I have lost weight, not easily, but much much better then the band. What does concern me is that i do feel hunger returning and I suspect that over the long run that will increase. The hunger hormones are still produced, and once you are over the initial "honeymoon period" you might experience it too.

so far it is different though, it is not an all consuming hunger. IT is more like, just being hungry. Time will tell.

I drank the koolaid - I believed the band was going to make me feel like I ate Thanksgiving dinner after 1/2 cup of food. LIES all LIES.

The band does NOTHING for hunger!! The amount of Ghrelin that your stomach produces does not change because the full stomach is in tact. I was choking on top and starving on the bottom... it is a nightmare for me.

[Ms.AntiBand 2,984]

YES.. The band is that BAD! I was banded in 06 and self paid. Had 6 years of complications and even had it replaced at an additional cost. I had been hospitalized so many times I've lost count. Several times I was unconscious and never knew I was admitted. My insurance refuses to pay (some costs are being legally appealed on the medical necessity clause). My last hospitalization they couldn't bring my bp up to save me so they did urgent surgery n removed the band the second time. I m in debt over $200 grand.

Sadly, I am in the process of researching the sleeve... Something I should have done many years and dollars ago

[Ms.AntiBand 2,984]

Oh I forgot to mention my several blood transfusions and monthly Iron infusions. I have a permanent port inserted in my chest because they can no longer access any veins in my arms. Good Lord, what was I thinking?

[mandyMO 67]

I to had my band for almost 2 yrs had great success with it lost nearly 200 lbs then in april it all went to hell in a hand basket please excuse my language but seriously it went that was had a slight slip in april started having major reflux then they let the stomach fall back down then in june i started having problems would wake myself up in my sleep cause i was choking on stuff that was coming up then i was put in the hospital cause of blood clots and had to have my surgeon come unfill me cause i set up all night vomiting and having these horrific hiccups that hurt so bad then after a couple of weeks went and had a slight fill not then at the end of august in a days time i started throwing up and couldnt drink it felt like razor blades going down it hurt so back and felt like there was a knife in my back going all the way to the front went in they did a swallow and i had a obstruction nothing was going through then had a scope and found a major slip and my stomach had folded in half had it removed the next day !